About Me

Welcome, I am so happy you're here!

I'm Lilia, physician, psychotherapist, coach, and teacher.

I help women and brave humans of all genders to become fiercely embodied and reclaim their wholeness and their full, unbridled life.

My mission and passion is to help you be fiercely rooted in your body and to make the best choices for your healing and wellbeing, reclaiming ease and joy as part of our collective liberation from dis-embodiment. Together, we counter the forces of performative health and cultivate connected self-care.

I show up to the work we do together fully, in radical presence and with an open heart. I do my best to walk the walk and continue to learn every day. Both my training and my life experience have contributed to the skills and tools I share with you, and I have experienced the benefits in my own life of the practices I will invite you to experiment with and cultivate.

With more than 20,000 hours of clinical experience, I have helped hundreds of people heal, flourish, and reclaim a full, nourishing life.

My coaching practice is rooted in intersectional feminism and grounded in the principles of Body Respect, Body Trust® and Health at Every Size® (HAES®). It is trauma informed, healing centered, and inclusive of all humans/bodies across the weight, gender, race, ability, and neurodiversity spectrum.

My style is warm and gentle, but I do not shy away from those dark and deep wounds that need to be witnessed and healed. The work we will do together is brave and vulnerable.

My coaching specializes in embodiment practices, as well as mindfulness and compassion-based approaches.

I am no longer trapped in performative health or dis-embodiment,

I cultivate attuned self-care and fierce embodiment on an everyday basis,

and I’ve helped hundreds of humans reclaim their wholeness and their full, unbridled life.

Lately, I've been reflecting a lot on how our intersecting identities (including gender, race, culture, neurodiversity - especially "giftedness" and "twice exceptionality", different health conditions and mental health challenges), as well as experiences of loss and trauma, affect our experience of embodiment and our access to embodied wholeness and wellbeing.

I am also passionate about collectively countering what I call the dark forces of performative health, among other oppressive discourses, so that we can create a culture of body justice and liberation.

My Training and Experience

This is a selfie I took as part of a wonderful workshop with Vivienne McMaster from Be Your Own Beloved - if you don't know Vivienne yet, do check out her work. The prompt was to explore power poses and let the camera catch us with the timer. After trying with the more typical ones (legs and arms spread or 'superhero pose'), which felt kind of contrived, and didn't resonate with me, I started practicing some yoga poses, connecting to a feeling of rootedness and being centered and cultivating lovingkindness. So this is me in tree pose (though you can't see my legs), feeling deeply connected to the earth, honoring my more quiet and gentle style and being fiercely rooted in my body.

I am a physician (MD) and licensed marriage and family therapist (LMFT) with 15+ years clinical experience helping people with struggles with food and eating, depression, anxiety, trauma, loss, chronic pain and illness, and experiences of dis-embodiment.

I am intimately familiar with bodies and minds and our healing processes, and how we can relate to, nourish and take care of ourselves and our bodies in ways that can bring us closer to embodied wellbeing, radical presence, fierce embodiment and joy.

I am known for pioneering mindful eating and weight inclusive care in the Spanish speaking world, as well as for bringing together radical care paradigms in the field of mind-body medicine.

My coaching practice is at the intersection of different healing modalities, centering your lived experience and your body as a source of knowing, with a depth and scope very few providers can offer you.

This website is for my coaching services. If you are interested in a medical or mental health consultation, please visit my clinical website.

Getting a Little More Personal...

I am Mexican. My heritage is a mosaic of different cultures, and I identify as Latina. I'm an avid amateur cook, baker, and foodie. I adore spending time reading in silence, and also spending time outdoors in nature - preferably without tons of people around. I love deep 1:1 conversations and spending time with dear friends. My partner and I have chosen to be child-free, and we share our home with our beloved cats, Thomas, Ziggy and Lupito.

I am a highly sensitive person (HSP) and an INFJ or 'Advocate' personality on the Myers-Briggs inventory. I am also what is known as "twice exceptional", with "high giftedness", sensory modulation difficulties and some mental health challenges (I am very uncomfortable with the whole "giftedness" terminology, but that's what we have right now, and probably the topic of a whole nother conversation). All of this means that I am deeply acquainted with the experience of living with intensity and complexity, and of thinking, feeling, and processing things differently. I am also unfortunately quite familiar with the pressure to conform and disconnect from myself.

My own life experiences with developmental and complex trauma, depression, anxiety, neurodivergence and chronic pain, together with a healing journey that has involved extensive psychotherapy and mind-body practices, have shaped the way I approach my suffering and that of others. I consider it my privilege, purpose and deepest source of fulfillment to be able to witness and support others in their own healing path.

If you'd like to read more about how these experiences have shaped, and continue to shape, my experience of embodiment join my newsletter.

You'll also get book recommendations and the occasional (OK, maybe frequent) poem or quote.

My Influences, Teachers and Lineage

Throughout my life, I have found belonging in a tradition of rebels in academia and the health professions. Although it would be impossible to include all of the people whose teachings and support have shaped my approach and helped me in my own healing journey, I do want to acknowledge some whose influence is most salient for me at the moment.

Lucy Aphramor, Radical Dietitian and Poet, whose work in critical dietetics and Body Respect, and embodiment of warmth and love continues to inspire and challenge me;